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April 27, 2006
Massive Attack
A posse of Comfort peeps saw Massive Attack at the Paramount last night. They were pretty great. Not outstanding, but pretty great; lots of high moments, a few questionable set list choices, rotten vocal mixing, and very very pretty lights. They haven't toured America in something like eight years, so we all felt pretty happy about the experience; the encore of "Inertia Creeps," "Unfinished Sympathy" and "Group Four" was an ass-kicker. To commemorate this experience that we all had but you did not, allow me to offer the following treats:
The Peter Gabriel remix here is from the 1993 Steam CD single, which also featured a Hank Shocklee remix if you happen to be a Hank Shocklee collector; DB refers to Dave Bottrill, longtime Gabriel engineer, but Massive Attack's stamp is obvious. The Elbow cover of "Teardrop" is something I (and many others) have posted before, but neither Corrie nor Laura had even heard much of Elbow, let alone this cover, so it bears reposting. And the final remix, by Paul Oakenfold, is my favorite of all the B-side remixes the band has released throughout the years. Infuriatingly, the vocalist fucked up my favorite lyric from that track: on the recording, the lyric is "Like a soul without a mind/In a body without a heart/I'm missing every part," which the concert vocalist mangled to "Like a body without a mind/Like a soul without a heart..." This prompted much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but she did it every single time, which made me think the band had blessed this wretched revision.
It's not like I have strong feelings about this.
Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers (Massive/DB mix)
Elbow - Teardrop
Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy (Perfecto mix)
In other news, not one but two separate people at the after-concert gathering indicated they had never heard any Massive Attack whatsoever. In addition to making me feel old like dinosaur, it also made me want to immediately post their entire back catalog, but that of course would be irresponsible. The band just released a greatest hits CD, but my recommendation to Massive Attack virgins is to blow that popsicle stand and just immediately go listen to Mezzanine, right now, THIS FUCKING SECOND. You can listen for free on Rhapsody:
Yes, you might have to install a plug-in, but it's free streaming, and if you're truly a Massive Attack virgin, you should consider this an emergency situation and get to work.
Recently on Comfort Radio:
Lifesavas - Spirit In Stone Outro
Broken Social Scene - Pacific Theme
Material - Seven Souls (Tim Simeon mix)
Posted by Scotto at April 27, 2006 08:00 AM
Comments
thanks scotto- the elbow rendition was mellow and sweet. the perfecto mix is a long-time fave of mine.
i continue to be disappointed in the mixing at the paramount. the sweet spot is in the back, which is weird.
Posted by: corrie at April 27, 2006 03:58 PM
those are very very pretty lights :)
Posted by: musicisart at April 28, 2006 08:41 AM
Nice choice!
This reminded me on some other Perfecto mixes like U2 and Hurricane #1... I must find my old VHS tapes!
Posted by: plej at April 28, 2006 09:06 AM
It was a good show. Not great, but good and I'm glad I went. I wanted there to be more intensity and we had trouble hearing on the mezzanine level. But it was great to see them.
Posted by: april at May 3, 2006 05:51 PM